Advocacy

Advocacy

Sometimes it is hard to advocate when you are talking with someone in authority or power, someone who is knowledgeable in their field or someone you respect the most.  But you should admit it; they are all human beings, prone to mistakes and errors.  They do not know everything.   As Albert Einstein said “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
 
One should not be afraid to advocate for someone or something especially when they truly know that they are right and/or doing the right thing.  It can be challenging, yes! And to others it can be a very difficult thing to do.  But the reward is fruitful.  It can make a change from the old habits, it can make a bad situation turned into good or even best, or it can simply save a life.

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”    ― William Faulkner

picture/s care of:
http://wordpandit.com/2012/advocate/
http://pinterest.com/pin/491033165591909387/

Compassion

COMPASSION     

     According to Google, Compassion <com·pas·sion> </kəmˈpaSHən/> is a noun which means a sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others: "the victims should be treated with compassion".  Some words Synonym to it is pity – mercy -  sympathy- commiseration – ruth- clemency.

     Compassion is a big word to fill.  It is hard, especially when you work in a health care field where you cater with “hopeless” patients.  “Hopeless” because they are sick and needed a human being to let them feel that everything will be okay.  For a Nurse, when you are busy and having six patient in a twelve hour shift, it is physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually challenging.  Sometimes you can be less compassionate with your care when you think of the loads that you need to do during the day.

Nowadays, people cannot blame nurses for having less compassion or none at all due to the some of these reasons:

• Too heavy workload – having 5-6 patients in a twelve hour shift is the hardest.  You need to prioritize who among them needs the care most, but on the other hand you need to provide equal care to all of them.

• Task based nursing- nurses needs to finish their expected task before the end of the shift.  Expected task like bathing the patient, giving medications, sitting them up on the chair, turning them, doing dressing change, reporting to the incoming shift, responding to call bells, and many more.

• Difficult family – We cannot help it, we deal with difficult families, who even though  our team did your best to cater to their needs, they still wanted more.  It can be time consuming and challenging for nurses.  Then, it ends up having other patients getting less time with their care.  

• Forms, Papers, Forms, Papers... – Policy makers wants to continuously improve health care.  That is good... but, in turn, they provide more paper works for nurses to fill out.  Some forms can be dragging and leave them 5 minutes just to fill out.

• Charting – they said “if it is not written, it means it is not done”, so that means, nurses needs to write everything that they did for the patients.  And writing legibly takes time.

• Complex patients with complex needs

• Break time – nurses are also human beings working.  They also need to eat and drink so that they can function at their best.

• Help – “no man is an island” as the saying goes.  That means nurses needs to work with their team mates to become more productive.  Asking for help to do certain things that one person cannot do is one of them.  And sometimes it takes time to look for someone to help you (because everyone is busy), or sometimes they will help you in a hurried manner (because they are busy).

     Providing compassion makes patients heal faster.  It makes families understand what is going on with their loved ones.  It makes bad memories turn into good.  It makes a “hopeless” human being feel that there is hope, and somebody cares for them.  I hope policy makers and the people who are working in the health care field animate the goals or care which is "to provide compassionate care."   

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi 

photos care of:

http://jesusanoints.com/?cat=1

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/compassion%20quotes

http://www.zazzle.ca/nurse_art_poster_compassion_healing_wisdom-228435966317783246

http://www.warnermemorial.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=135816

Pituitary Adenoma

Pituitary Adenoma

First of March,  I was accidentally diagnosed with Pituitary Adenoma.  Accidentally, because I've been having migraine headaches for more than a week prior to that and my doctor advised me to go to the ER (emergency department).  They did a scan and found out that I have the said adenoma. 

The whole world just collapsed after the diagnosis.  I have been working in the healthcare department for more than 8 years and I've seen clients having it.   I did not expect that it could happen to me.

I already saw an endocrinologist and did my blood work to check my hormones.  I am also done with my MRI.   At this point, all I can do is to wait.  Wait for the appointment with my endocrinologist.  Wait for what is next to happen with my life.

If you have the same experience, feel free to message me.  I want to connect with you so I can learn more about Pituitary Adenoma based on your experiences.

I compiled an article from the UCLA website about Pituitary Adenoma, references and link to the website can be found below.

• Pituitary adenomas are typically benign, slow-growing tumors that arise from cells in the pituitary gland.
• The pituitary gland is considered to be the master gland that regulates the body's hormones. 
• Pituitary adenomas are relatively common, accounting for approximately 15 percent of primary brain tumors
• Most pituitary tumors are benign and are called adenomas.

·         Pituitary adenomas are generally thought of as either hormone-producing or hormone-inactive tumors

• Some symptoms related to the mass effect from large pituitary adenomas: visual loss; pituitary failure; irregular menstrual periods; headaches; bleeding

·         The diagnosis of a pituitary adenoma is made based on a combination of pituitary function testing (blood hormone levels) and pituitary imaging

• The optimal treatment of a pituitary adenoma depends on multiple factors, including: Hormone production by the tumor (if present); Size of the tumor; How invasive the tumor is into surrounding structures; The age and health of the patient

• Typically, more than one specialist is involved in the management of pituitary adenomas

References/Articles/ Pictures came from:

http://radonc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=136